walmart came here to ketchikan, ak, about 3 yrs ago, and the local politicians recommissioned a 'rural' area of the borough into the city limits, so wally's zone would have to pay city taxes.
   this area was already "financially-challenged", from the pulp mill closure in 1996, when wally set up shop here, and the local clothing outlets have since left. but the walmart selection is always over-picked and lacking, like a plague of locusts have just been through the store. luckily, this wally doesn't sell food or do auto repairs, so there are still some locally-owned businesses in those departments. and a couple hardware stores have hung on.
   i think it's a sad sign of the times that walmart even chose to open here.. people were already resourcefully exhausted when they arrived. why pick here, where people are so broke, if not just out of spite? and, especially here, where there are 3 stoplights (now 4 - since walmart built it's own streets, and put up it's own stoplight on the highway, and it's own signs on the highway.
   what's even sadder, is that most people feel compelled to shop there since the other choice is catalogues, or internet shopping, and many even *like* it, since the local business owners were such pirates about their prices.
   the cruise ship industries - the other source of steady revenue anymore - who have bought up downtown - have their own shuttle buses to walmart to take the cruise ship passengers away a way out the road to shop at walmart, several times a day. Thusly taking away business from the downtown merchants (even though so many of them are just out of town carnies - hawking their "DUTY FREE" unsold souveniers from the carribean - where they have just arrived from, themselves). Them, and diamond and gemstone pirates from all over the world. Scary...
   AND - walmart's prices *have* started going up already.
   somebody needs to open a costco up here, fast! Probably a costco   would put wally in it's place.
in a "lesser of two evils" world,
v